


Only HUMINT

by batzulger



Series: The Military Option [2]
Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer, The A-Team (2010)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Crossover, Gen, Military
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-21
Updated: 2015-04-21
Packaged: 2018-03-25 03:56:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 17,656
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3795823
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/batzulger/pseuds/batzulger
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Advanced Training for GI Buffster</p>
            </blockquote>





	Only HUMINT

**Author's Note:**

> BtVS Property Mutant Enemy  
> A-Team Property Stephen J. Cannell Estate

**Graduation Day Part 4**

I do not own any rights to Buffy or any other recognizable characters. They belong to the current rights holders.  
  
  
"I, Buffy Anne Summers, do solemnly swear that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter. So help me God."  
  
"Congratulations Lieutenant Summers." Colonel March shook my hand and moved down the line of us freshly minted butter-bars.   
  
"Thank you sir," I was trying really hard not to tear up. Out in the crowded auditorium I could see Mom, Wills, Oz, Xander, Cordy, Faith, and Giles. Mom and Giles looked soo proud. Which made me want to bawl even more. I just wanted to run down there and hug them.  
  
Finally the ceremony was over and the glorious words of "Fall out!" were uttered. I moved as quickly as possible and was allowed of an officer and a lady to my family.  
  
"Oh honey you look so wonderful!" Mom was hugging me then Wills and Xan and even Giles, Cordy and Oz. Finally Faith stepped up, "B, you look the bomb."  
  
"Guess we're not going to kill each other anymore?"  
  
"Five by five on that," my sister slayer, the other half of the Chosen Two, wrapped herself around me and then we were both crying, then laughing, and then crying some more.  
  
"All right you two, I don't suppose either of you is interested in dinner then?"  
  
"Watcher mine, don't ever threaten slayers by withholding yummies. It's just not a smart move. Oh God I'm sorry Faith! I didn't mean to claim..." I felt really dumb  
  
Faith was laughing again, "No problem B. He was your Watcher before he was mine. I can share; I'm a big girl now."  
  
Cut to an instance of glasses polishing, "Ah yes well, we had better be going. I have made reservations at the Berghoff. I assume you wish to change my dear?" he was looking at me all dressed in my blues.  
  
"I'm good for now. Let's get food!"

  
At the restaurant we were all getting caught up. Wills was going to be starting graduate school at Hopkins in biomedical engineering with Oz working as a studio musician in Baltimore, Cordy and Xan were living down in LA and working with Angel's detective agency, Giles and Faith were doing the never ending apocalypse stomp, and as for mom...  
  
"The gallery is still doing well, but I think I'm going to sell it and move to Seattle. An old classmate of mine is looking for personal art shoppers for these new tech millionaires."  
  
"When are you planning with the move Mom?"  
  
"In the next few months. Selling the house should be fairly easily as the 'unusual' crime rate seems to have dropped in Sunnydale."  
  
"Gotcha."  
  
"So B, what's next for you?"  
  
I had been dreading this, "Uh, what do you mean?"  
  
"Yeah Buffster, have you found out where you'll be assigned yet?"  
  
"Honey, you haven't told your friends yet?"  
  
"I was waiting for the proper time Mom..."  
  
So spill missy, or I'll have to come up with some deviously tricky way of getting you to talk and you will not enjoy it buster," I could see the beginnings of the resolve face building.  
  
"Okay, okay, it's not that special. I've been assigned to the Military Intelligence Branch and have to go to the Intelligence Center in Arizona for advanced training..."  
  
"So ya have t'go t'Intelligence School?" Faith started laughing again, "Waste o'time in my opinion."  
  
I got mad, "And what do you mean by that?"  
  
"Just that ya got way more common sense than yer typical soldier. Ya sure yer not teachin' there?"  
  
"I...didn't think you'd say something like that..."  
  
"Yer th'oldest Slayer alive. One of th'longest surviving' ever. That takes brains as much as skills."  
  
"Thanks Faith."  
  
"So my dear, you leave for Arizona?"  
  
"Well first I have to go to Georgia for my Basic Officer Leaders Course part 2 and..." I glanced over at Mom, "...Airborne School."  
  
"You never told me about that!"  
  
"Sorry Mom, I didn't want you to make with the freakage. It's really safe, honestly it is."  
  
"But why would you want to jump out of a perfectly good airplane?"  
  
"One of the friends I made in Afghanistan took me skydiving last year. It was so awesome."  
  
"Would that friend be Tom?"  
  
"Uh...yeah."  
  
Mom pulled out her cell and started dialing,   
  
"Abby? It's Joyce...Is that husband of yours around? Thomas Ballantine, what have you convinced my daughter to do now with jumping out of airplanes? You tried to talk her out of it? Yes yes...I suppose you're right," hanging up Mom turned and glared at me.  
  
I tried looking as innocent as possible.  
  
"He says the only reason you're going airborne is that the Army won't let you go to Ranger School."  
  
"I might be a little overachieving I admit..."  
  
All my friends started laughing, even Giles.  
  
"What?"  
  
"My dear you specialize in not breaking just the mold, but crumbling it to dust."  
  
Even Mom started to laugh at that, and dinner ended up a complete success.

  
Faith and I were running through the darkened downtown streets trying to chase down a vamp that must've been a track star when he was alive.  
  
"Yo B."  
  
"Yeah?"  
  
"I start college part time next-month."  
  
"That's so awesome! Here or in Tweed-land?"  
  
"Boston...I'm going home B."  
  
"What about the Slaying gig?"  
  
"The Apoc season's over for th'year and you'll be available, I hope, this fall. So we can spread out the staking'."  
  
"That could work."  
  
"So where ya goin' t'be living' once ya finish these schools?"  
  
"I got an offer to join the Diplomatic Security Service. I could wind up anywhere."  
  
"The what."  
  
"It's kind of like an overseas version of the Secret Service. Guard diplomats, do counterintelligence, hunt terrorists. That sort of stuff."  
  
"Did ya call them or did they call you?"  
  
"They called me...I think someone's been keeping an eye on me."  
  
"Be careful."  
  
"I will...Plus, I know you've got my back."  
  
"Damn straight! Let's get that bloodsucker."

 

**Welcome to Arizona**

Fort Benning was easy. The only really rough parts of the Basic Officer Leadership Course were the day into night land navigation course and the leadership rotations. All the physical stuff was a breeze as well as the marksmanship qualification and urban operations. Running a Forward Operating Base on the other hand...Let's just say Buffy and paperwork are natural enemies and leave it at that.  
  
I did graduate though and then the fun part of my trip to Georgia started. Airborne school is pretty short, only three weeks, and is all about the physical. The first week you learn how to put on a parachute harness and how to land without any major damage. Then you get to climb a 34 foot tower, get clipped onto a zip line and practice jumping out of a simulated aircraft.  
  
After finishing all that you get Tower Week. More 34 foot towers, this time learning how to mass exit an aircraft. Then Swing Landing training and finally the 250 foot tower. Don't forget plenty of running, push-ups, and squats in case the Black Hats got bored!  
  
And the last week is jumping. I was just soooo glad that no one I knew was there to see me waddle like a penguin with my parachute, rucksack and weapon case on to the C-130. But once those five jumps were done and my wings were pinned on...It felt like heaven.  
  
Then I went to Arizona.

  
Fort Huachuca is in the South-eastern corner at about a mile above sea level. It's only about twenty or so kilometers north of Mexico and is in a serious high desert. Of course I was in Arizona in August so the temperature was in the high 90s and the North American Monsoon was going so it drizzled almost every day.  
  
That heavenly feeling I was having? Not so much anymore. And I was going to be stuck here for the next four months or so!

  
Learning to be an Officer is a lot like learning to be a elementary school teacher I would guess. The basic philosophy is 'How do you keep enlisted soldiers focused and not hurting themselves?'. As I had basically been an enlisted soldier for the last four years, I was actually pretty offended by the cavalier attitude that a lot of my fellow lieutenants took. That being, your average enlisted must be micromanaged or nothing will ever be accomplished.  
  
Thinking back to my joyous experiences with Cutter, I swore I would never be that much of an idiot. Fortunately my instructors were decent and my Jump Wings, Air Assault Wings, and most importantly my Combat Action Badge, kept away most of the snide comments of my classmates.  
  
The classes themselves were a mixture of boring and neato-keen. Command Estimates, Situation Mapping, Mission Analysis were all really boring but stupidly important. Target Development had definite applications for Slaying demonic cults and other organized groups and was interesting as well. And developing courses of action (plannage) for offense and defense along with reconnaissance was really fun.  
  
Then there was the reading and writing and inspections and physical training and language maintenance. I didn't really have time to get truly bored, but I couldn't get away and slay either.  
  
I had been at Huachuca for 15 weeks when the murders started.

 

**Blood, Sweat, and Tears**

I had really missed hearing about the first two killings, being in research/study mode and all. Knowing which forms to fill out and how many apparently can mean the difference of life and death to a unit and woe is you if they're filed incorrectly! The third one on the other hand took place out by the aerostat. And, as that is a pretty restricted area...That got some serious notice.  
  
The aerostat is this big blimpy looking blimp that is tied to the ground by a big cable. It has some fancy radar mounted on it and is used to spot drug smugglers' aircraft. As a lot of smugglers would not like their aircraft spotted, you can imagine how tight the security is on the ground control point.  
  
I had been studying at the post library and chatting with a cute MP. As my combat patch flagged me as a former MP as well, we talked shop and stuff. Then a call came in for an all-post lock down. It's really hard to fully lock down a post. They tend to be in desolate areas so sporadic gunfire doesn't annoy the neighbors, and they tend to be really large so there's plenty of room to move around. These two things make it kinda hard to control people going in and out unnoticed, but the MPs do try their best.  
  
My new friend took off just as the library announced they were closing and that all personnel should report back to their quarters ASAP. I packed up my books and left like a good little trainee, but made sure to dawdle where I good hear one of the MP sergeants briefing my new friend outside.  
  
"...what happened? I'll tell you what happened. All the DEA night shift were fucking butchered out at the aerostat. They missed their check-in and road patrol swung by to see if it was a comm loss or what. Nordstrom sees there's nobody in the guard booth and gets no response to voice or his horn so he calls for back-up.  
  
In fifteen minutes we have two more cars plus the Quick Reaction Force on site. Nordstrom said it was like a slaughterhouse...guys chopped to pieces, blood everywhere. At least twenty armed guys, all dead or missing! That's what fucking happened!"  
  
I headed to my quarters at a double-time and immediately called a friend up at Fort Drum.  
  
"Griggs."  
  
"Master Sergeant, this is Lieutenant Summers."  
  
"Buffy? Hey Congratulations Ma'am!"  
  
"Thanks Master Sergeant, but we might be having a major Jarret village incident out at Huachuca."  
  
"You're shitting me..."  
  
"I'm not doing the fibbage. Is there anybody here I can trust?"  
  
"Let me check," I heard him flipping through a notebook, "Try Sergeant Major Browder. I think he's running the weapons training section for you Officer types. He wasn't at Jarret, but tell him to give me and Tom a call. He was Tom's and my First Sergeant, when we were in Panama."  
  
I breathed a sigh of relief, "Thanks Master Sergeant."  
  
"You need back-up? I might be able to slide a platoon your way with about eight hours notice..."  
  
"Really? But how would you explain it?"  
  
"Let me worry about that. That's why I'm a Senior NCO and you're only an Officer," he chuckled.  
  
"Thanks..I think?"  
  
His voice got serious again, "If you need back-up, call. That's an order Sergeant Summers."  
  
"I got it Master Sergeant. Summers out."  
  
I clicked the phone shut and took a deep breath before calling the Sergeant Major.

  
Soon, I was in a humvee with Sergeant Major Browder. Griggs had called him right after I had hung up and said I was a "good officer". Having a Master Sergeant vouch for a 2nd Lieutenant like that is almost unheard of, but the Sergeant Major took him at his word and grabbing his driver, was on his way to pick me up within ten minutes.  
  
"So LT, you know what happened out here?"  
  
"Not exactly. But I'm pretty sure the usual suspects weren't responsible."  
  
"Usual suspects??"  
  
"Barbecue forks, gangs hopped up on PCP, wild dog attacks."  
  
"Why do you think that?"  
  
"Twenty people dead or missing. It would take a major operation to do that kind of damage."  
  
"Yeah, the aerostat base is only about a klick or so from a housing development. Nobody there heard anything."  
  
"Hand weapons only probably."  
  
"Ma'am, from what I heard, the bodies that were found were ripped to shit," the driver, a Specialist, spoke up.  
  
"Can it Wright, the LT doesn't need to hear that."  
  
"Actually I do. Specialist Wright, what did you hear and how did you hear about it?"  
  
"My roommate is dating an MP. He was over in their barracks talking to her when the call came in. When he came back after the lock down was called, he told me that the first guys on the scene said it looked like the bodies had been ripped apart by a bear. Then one of the MPs said it sounded like the two killings down by Nogales they had gotten a report on."  
  
"What killings?"  
  
"You hadn't heard ma'am? Couple days ago Border patrol found a couple of coyotes, you know people smugglers? They had been chopped to shit as well, just north of the border. The word was that another bunch had rumbled them."  
  
"Trust the Specialist Mafia to know everything...true or not," Browder shook his head sadly.  
  
"He might be right Sergeant Major. Let's just see. Wright, could you stop about here?"  
  
The humvee pulled to halt just out of normal peoples' sight of the aerostat pad checkpoint. I pinned on my old MP's brassard that I had fished out of my duffle and got out.  
  
"Okay Sergeant Major, give me ten minutes then pull up and get their attention."  
  
"You got it LT. Remember, I can't bail you out if something goes wrong though."  
  
"I know. Thanks...Both of you," with that I slipped into the night and began moving towards the fence line and the perimeter.

 

**SNAFU**

I sprinted to just out of range of the work-lights and looked for any cover I could use to make the fence line. I was pretty sure with all the activity that they had turned off the motion sensors but the shock sensors between the double fences were probably still live. It was about 20 feet between the ten foot tall fences. I could do this.  
  
The Sergeant Major had pulled up to the gate and was offering to help out to the MP Staff Duty Officer. The SDO looked frazzled. Having a major crime like this go off on his duty slot meant he was in for a hell dimension of paperwork tomorrow, as well as giving more briefings and situation reports than I could possibly imagine. I moved around to the back side of the fenced off area. Making sure my hair was tucked under my beret I took a running start and leapt over the pair of fences rolling to a halt behind one of the huge cable reels that moored the aerostat. Quickly brushing the sand and muck off I made sure my uniform wasn't too rumpled and my brassard was on straight, and walked calmly towards the crime scene. Just another MP junior officer called in to assist.

  
It didn't take me more than five minutes to see my first victim. He had had his right arm cut off and it was lying next to him on the ground. His M16 still in his death grip. There was way too much blood for this to be a vamp killing and it looked like all the parts were there so he hadn't been eaten. His head had been crushed and it looked like he had been stabbed or sliced across his chest. This was definitely some sort of demonic attack. I idly returned the salute of the troops guarding the body and glanced around the ground looking for tracks or goo.   
  
I wouldn't have noticed it if I hadn't been looking for it. Two quick footprints in the drizzle induced mud. and two more print-ish smears on the concrete pad by the body. Each twice the size of a normal human's and with five claw depressions ahead of the toes. I took a guess at the stride and figured it was somewhere between six and eight tall and could jump further than I could.  
  
I didn't want to raise too much attention so I headed towards the largest cluster of investigators that were standing by the aerostat maintenance and control buildings. It was mainly uniforms with only a small sprinkling of civilian clothes. Probably DEA and the local law enforcement. There hadn't been time for the FBI to arrive yet. All they were talking about was search patterns and lack of any clear evidence of who had done this, or for that matter even how they had done it.  
  
At that point I heard a commotion by the gate. The discussion stopped as everybody turned to watch three black SUVs pull in and stop in front of what looked like the base Provost Marshal. Guys in dark suits got out carrying a whole lot of weird techie stuff, so I decided to get out of their line of sight and started heading for the gate. As I was just about to round the building's corner the last person exited.  
  
She was a little taller than me with shortish blonde hair and was wearing a stylish suit and carrying an umbrella. She walked over to the Provost and as she flipped open a badge case said, "I'm Doctor Margaret Walsh. I'm taking over this crime scene."  
  
"Under whose orders?" the Provost looked more than a little upset.  
  
"Under the orders of the National Security Chairman. You have twenty minutes to clear the area and establish a perimeter until my people get here. Do you understand, Major Whitlock?"  
  
The Provost grabbed the paper she was handing him and after reading it, nodded, "Yes ma'am, I understand."  
  
"Excellent. Clear your people out...Now."  
  
Soon there was an exodus and I was able to slip out with the crowd. I trotted up the road until I reached the Sergeant Major's humvee.   
  
"Find what you were looking for LT?"  
  
"I sure did Specialist Wright. Where's the Sergeant Major?"  
  
"Dropped him off at the arms room. It's got a secure line. If I can ask, Ma'am. What's the hell's going on?"  
  
"I'm not really sure Wright...Can you keep your mouth shut?"  
  
"The Sergeant Major said he'd feed me to the vultures if I talked about tonight's operation."  
  
"I need to find out whatever I can about those SUVs and their passengers. Can you do that all subtly and stuff?"  
  
"I can try."  
  
"Great," I smiled at him, "Also, I need to borrow the axe from your pioneer kit..."

 

**A Hunting We Will Go**

A pioneer kit is a set of tools that pretty much every military vehicle has. Usually a spare jerry can of fuel and one of water, a shovel, a pick, a stack of empty sandbags, and a nice felling ax. Wright got out and folded the tray down from under the back deck, and after unstrapping the ax, handed it to me.  
  
"This what you need?"  
  
"Yupper!" it was decent quality and even reasonably sharp."Give me your cell phone number."  
  
While he was writing, and after making sure the leather scabbard was on nice and snug to the blade, I slipped the ax handle down the back of my uniform blouse, and then pulled my Goretex jacket back on. It wasn't as good as a sheath, but it would do for now.   
  
Wright was looking at me with fascination, "It's a female officer thing...Right?"  
  
"Nice try. If you realllllly sure you want to know, I'll tell you. But right now we don't have the moment," I checked my boot laces to see if they were tight, "So, you can either chill here or head back to the barracks. I'll call you if I need a pick-up."  
  
Wright folded up the tool tray and re-secured it, "Sure you don't want an extra set of hands and eyes?"  
  
"This is strictly recon. No offense, but I'll move faster on my own, "If you don't hear back from me in two hours, call the Master Sergeant and tell him to tell Griggs I need that back-up."  
  
Wright nodded and got back in the vehicle, "Be careful LT!"  
  
"That is definitely the plannage," I waved as he drove off. Then turned and headed back towards the aerostat station.

  
I was jogging along between the road to the east of me and the Huachuca Mountains to the west. The mountains weren't as tall as Tajikistan, but were pretty impressive in their own way. My thinking was this; If you're a really violent demon, wouldn't you like an awesome view of your potential prey?  
  
I turned west into the mountains when I drew up parallel to the aerostat. Slowing down I started checking the ground for tracks as I headed up the slope.

  
The Huachuca Mountains aren't like the Rockies or the Green Mountains. They actually have relatively gentle slopes and are covered with scrub and sand over broken and cracked stone. There are tons of draws, old mines, and canyons all over them. That meant there were plenty of places to hide. So I had to figure out where it would be and what it would do next.  
  
What did I know about this particular ick-fest?:  
  
It was big and strong and liked to dismember. That was pretty obvious.   
  
It was really fast. It took out all the security there without any of them firing a shot, being able to call for help or even tripping an alarm.  
  
It could either jump really well or fly, as it had made it over the fences as easily as I had. I didn't see any bodies that had been splattered from a height, so I was leaning towards the jumping type.  
  
It was confident...I mean REALLY confident that it could take on twenty armed men and take the time to demolish them like it did. That meant it was probably a warrior caste of whatever demonic species it was.   
  
And finally, it really liked killing humans.

  
I picked up the trail almost in a direct line from the marks I saw inside the perimeter. It wasn't even trying very hard to hide its tracks. Probably counting on the fact that it could jump a good twenty feet or so to throw off any pursuer and that the drizzle would soon wash them away. It was heavy enough though, that whenever it landed from one of its jumps, it left a recognizable pair of depressions.  
  
After heading up the spur for a short way it started skirting to the north towards Garden Canyon. It was obviously trying to break trail to throw off people like me and was also obviously trying to keep from silhouetting.  
  
I had just crossed one of the ATV trails that littered this area when I heard an engine. Glancing around, I found a small crack in the stone and squeezed in. A minute later I heard car doors open and shut and voices talking quietly.  
  
"Is this where the satellite picked up the heat trace?" it was that woman's, Dr. Walsh's, voice.  
  
"Yes ma'am. It was moving fast and in this direction about five minutes ago. It 's either passed by already, not here yet, or still in the area."  
  
"How big was the signature?"  
  
"It had some kind of IR damping so the NRO isn't sure. The rain isn't helping either. It was extremely fast though."  
  
"All right Sergeant Finn, Spread your men out and make sure that each team has a thermal imager. See if you can pick up a trail."  
  
"Understood ma'am. Alright fire teams! Draw one imager per team and set up a skirmish line going that-a-way! Keep your eyes open! Sergeant Gates, your team has rear security. Miller you're with me."  
  
I shuddered. These guys were good and professional. I was as good as found...

 

**Flight or Fight**

I had two options. Make a break for it and see if I could get away from them, or stay put and hope they didn't notice my hide. I was facing down slope and I knew that I could easily outrun any or all of them on foot. Unfortunately they had multiple vehicles, radios, and from the sounds of it, satellite coverage.  
  
If I stayed put, they would probably find me and I would have absolutely no tactical advantage due to the tinyness of my hole in the ground.  
  
That brought me to option number three...

  
I waited patiently as the skirmish line moved out. They probably wouldn't spot my hide until they turned around and came back up the slope.   
  
There were three teams of four men each. All carried submachine guns, MP5s by the look of it, and wore civilian clothes and tactical vests. The guy in the lead of each group held a video camera looking thingy at waist height and all the rest were wearing NVGs. At least their depth perception would suck.  
  
I slipped out of the crack in the rock after quietly slipping off my brassard and unpinning my shiny 2nd Lieutenant's bar. Peeking around the corner I saw the last four man fire team looking upslope away from me on the other side of three large black SUVs. Dr. Walsh was sitting in the passenger side front seat of the lead vehicle tapping away on a laptop and talking on a cell phone. All the windows were up, so even I, with my super-slaying senses, couldn't hear what she was saying.  
  
I slipped the ax out from my back and started quietly low crawling up to the lead vehicle. The engine was still running so it covered my movements with its noise. When I got to the SUV I slid underneath and wedged the ax crossways across the frame about five feet from the under slung spare tire. Then I waited.

  
About an hour later the rain changed from drizzle to downpour. As I watched, I saw all traces of my wiggle trail flowing away as I lay in a two inch deep puddle. A few minutes later the skirmish line was coming back. I slid up by the engine to mask my body temp as they approached.  
  
The door above me opened.  
  
"Find anything?"  
  
"No ma'am, it got away. No tracks or anything at least within a kilometer down slope."  
  
"Damn! We'll come back tomorrow. I was checking with satellite passes. We'll have one re-tasked for exclusive use by 10AM."  
  
"Orders?"  
  
"Oh yes. Let's get back to base. With this rain there's not much chance of picking up the trail and it leaves us to open to ambush."  
  
"What about the locals and the MPs?"  
  
"At this time they still have no need to know Sergeant."  
  
"Yes ma'am, understood. Alright everybody! Mount up! We're RTB!"  
  
There was a lot of doors opening, men bitching, and people piling inside. I scooted back to the ax and grabbing it, swung my boots up to rest on the spare tire mounting bracket. A minute later all the doors had shut and the vehicles started picking their way down the slope. A cold, wet, and grumpy slayer slung underneath. In about twenty minutes, we were back on base and heading to the Sensitive Compartmented Information Facilities. They used vehicle undermirrors there, so I waited till we were stopped at an intersection with a stoplight, then dropped, freed the ax and rolled towards the curb when the light turned green. There wasn't any shouting, stopping, or shooting so after waiting a minute I got up and called Wright.  
  
"This is Summers, I need a ride from...I'm not really sure actually..."

 

**Learning Curve**

Wright found me pretty quick, and after I gave him his ax back, I was back in my barracks in a hot shower. Glancing at my watch I saw it hadn't even turned 2300 yet. I even had plenty of time for some sleep before morning PT at 0500. I snuggled in under my covers and was unconscious almost instantly. It had been a stupidly long day.

  
At 0Dark-thirty or so my alarm went off and I did the morning ritual of brush teeth, struggle into PT gear, stagger outside for first formation. The good side of all the stuff I had done yesterday, was that all my muscles were thoroughly stretched. The bad side was they hadn't been stretched like that in about 15 weeks. Important Tip: Sore Buffys are not happy Buffys. At least the rain had stopped and the clouds were pulling away.  
  
After calisthenics and the run, it was shower then food time. Note that pancakes are still an excellentish cure for all aches and pains. Then class and drills and the rest of the life of a busy student. I actually found it easy to concentrate on classes today mainly due to the fact we were doing map tracking and getting briefed on our final field exercise.  
  
We would be spending a week in the field running the S-2 (Intelligence Section) of a simulated Infantry Brigade. It actually sounded like fun. Hopefully I, or the scary people in the SUVs, would have dealt with the demon before any more Field Exercises started though.  
  
The local rumor mill was saying that a DEA agent had lost it and killed everybody out at the aerostat site before escaping, and that the two other deaths were not connected. I nodded as though I actually believed that and headed straight to the Sergeant Major's office when we were dismissed for the day.

  
"So you're telling me that there is some weird kind of black op with biological weapons being tested going on?"  
  
"Close enough Sergeant Major. Actually I think the black op is trying to catch the weapon, not testing it. We're you able to track down any of the names I gave you?"  
  
"Margaret Walsh MD PhD is attached to DARPA through some program with the TLA of DRI, whatever the hell that is. I checked for troop postings E-5 and higher with the last names of Finn, Gates, and Miller also operating under DARPA. Got hits on two Rangers Sergeant First Class Riley Finn, and Staff Sergeant Graham Miller both ex-3rd Batt. Their exact posting is codeword only."  
  
"Uh oh..."  
  
Uh oh is a little mild LT. This is a shit-storm just waiting to happen. I had to back-channel all of this so any of my searches couldn't be traced here."  
  
"Joy."  
  
"Yeah, that about sums it up. Okay LT, what are your orders?"  
  
I froze. A Ranger Sergeant Major with over twenty years in was asking me what to do. It took either thirty seconds or an eternity for my brain to unlock.  
  
"Can I work through this as an exercise?"  
  
"You're the officer, you make the call."  
  
"Okay. The problem is finding a single mobile and hostile target while avoiding a superior force. What do we have for assets? One MI Lieutenant trainee, one Specialist...What MOS is Wright?"  
  
"He's an 11B."  
  
"Infantry...Not a Corporal?"  
  
"He's waiting on a NCO Academy slot."  
  
"Gotcha, and one career bad-ass." the Sergeant Major rolled his eyes at that.  
  
"I'm an old and fat desk warrior LT, remember that."  
  
"Of course you are," I walked to his office door and waved for Wright to come in.  
  
"Before I start making plans, I really better tell you both what I think happened at the aerostat station, and before I tell you that, let me tell you a little story that starts...The world is older than you know..."

  
They didn't freak...much. Wright thought it was a joke till I lifted him one-handed above my head and threatened to pitch him out the window. The Sergeant Major just nodded and mumbled how that explains some things about the Army.  
  
"So we have a black ops hunting team looking for a demon?" Wright was starting to look excited.  
  
"Pretty much."  
  
"Why don't we let them kill it and stay out of the way?"  
  
"They knew it existed at least after the first attack. That's pretty obvious since they arrived fully geared up almost as soon as I did. That also means they had a good idea where it was going. From what I've gathered, none of the MPs on patrol had any idea something dangerous was out there. Not even a story about a whacked out serial killer in the area. They hid that intel so they'd have a better chance of finding it first. That doesn't seem like your typical team-player mentality," I took a breath, "Also they didn't have that 'kill on sight' feeling. I've seen that in both humans and demons. That means they probably want to catch it. In my experience demons and governments do NOT belong together. Of course my experience was only local government, but I'm pretty sure the bad ideage would scale up."  
  
I looked over at my audience. Wright looked stunned and the Sergeant Major looked impressed.  
  
"Good analysis. But you might want to increase your assets available listing. I've called an old friend of mine and he should be here tomorrow."  
  
"Who is he?"  
  
"He's an ex-Ranger Light Colonel. I don't think you've ever heard of him, his name's John Smith."  


 

**The 'A' in Team**

I stayed in my barracks that night. After that kill-frenzy I was pretty sure the demon would lay low for a day or so. Even crazed killing machines like to break up their routines a little. Keeps the murderous death killy spirit fresh I think.  
  
Anyway I hit the books and did my homework and called Giles. He and Faith were in Indonesia dealing with a Penangalanggashammalammadingdong or something infestation. By the way, why can't demony things have normalish names? Is that really too much to ask? So they were out of the area for the time being. At least tomorrow was Friday and I had a whole weekend coming up to hunt down a demon and figure out who the black ops were.  
  
I told Mr. Gordo goodnight and went to sleep.

  
It wasn't raining for a second day in a row which meant the ground was relatively dry. That made it much more pleasant to do sit-ups and flutter kicks during PT.  
  
During class we went over mission prep for the field exercise that was starting Monday. Including a reminder to make sure our packs were loaded correctly and that we bring along only mission essential gear. I agreed with that as I knew Mr. Gordo was as mission essential as it gets.  
  
The rest of the day dragged on and I could not wait till the end of the final formation and the order to Fall Out.

  
An hour later I was sitting in civvies at a diner waiting to meet the mysterious Colonel Smith. I had been there about ten minutes when four very distinctive looking guys walked in.  
  
The guy in the front was at least six foot tall, and looked almost as wide across the shoulders. He radiated power and moved like a fighter. Behind him was a smiling thin man wearing a baseball cap and a leather pilot's jacket. He saw me looking at him and smiled and waved. The guy next to him was a serious hottie. He smiled as well and I couldn't help but smile back. The last guy was almost as distinctive as the first. He was well over six foot tall and had white hair, but didn't really look that old. Carefully moving past the other three he walked over and sat down.  
  
"Lieutenant Summers?"  
  
"Yes. Colonel Smith?"  
  
"Call me Hannibal. This is Sergeant Bosco Baracus, Lieutenant Templeton Peck, and Captain Murdock. Would you mind telling us why Dan Browder called us here?"  
  
"Sure, but it will be a little easier to explain after a quick demonstration," I pointed at Sergeant Baracus, "I need to arm wrestle him."  
  
"Hannibal, is she serious?" the sergeant looked fairly surprised.  
  
"Are you Lieutenant?"  
  
"I am sir, and please call me Buffy."  
  
"Guess she is. Sit down B.A. and arm-wrestle her."  
  
The Sergeant sat down across from me and rested his elbow on the table. Even relaxed it looked like his muscles had extra muscles on top of them. I grabbed his hand and he closed his massive fist. Making my tiny fingers vanish.  
  
"Okay Sergeant, pin my arm."  
  
He was the strongest human I had ever encountered. In fact he was stronger than a lot of the vamps I had fought. The only problem was that he was still a human, and I was the Slayer.  
  
After five minutes of straining I let him force my arm to the table. The Sergeant was staring at me.  
  
"How'd you do that?"  
  
"It'll be part of the mission brief, trust me. Now let's go, demons to kill. Covert ops to annoy, you know..." I got up and started walking out of the diner leaving them to catch up.  


**Mission Brief**

"Colonel, are you sure she's serious? That's weirder than anything Murdock's ever come up with." B.A. was looking over his shoulder at me while expertly weaving through traffic.  
  
"Sticks and stones B.A. my friend...What do you think Billy?"  
  
We were all in his custom van and heading back towards Huachuca. I had just sketched out what was going on and the Colonel, Hannibal, had leaned back and was thinking.  
  
"Bosco, I think the Lieutenant is completely serious, and seeing as she has gotten glowing reviews from someone like Ron Griggs, I'm also willing to believe she knows what she's talking about." He turned to look back at me, "Okay Lieutenant. You got the A-Team."

  
We were in Master Sergeant Browder's office going over my recon.  
  
"El-Tee," Baracus spoke up, "I know Riley Finn and Graham Miller."  
  
"Really?"  
  
"Yes ma'am..." I held up my hand.  
  
"Please, call me Summers or Buffy. Even you Wright. I'm not old enough to be ma'am-ed at every opportunity. Got it Bosco?" I fixed him with a level 2 slayer glare.  
  
"Yes Buffy..." I noticed the Colonel give me a slight approving nod. At least I wasn't screwing this up completely, "Anyway, I met Miller when we were both gettin' tabbed. I was in 2nd Battalion, he was in 3rd."  
  
"And Finn?" the Colonel was leaning back in a chair looking at the ceiling as he asked this.  
  
"SERE school at Camp Mackall. We were th' only two Rangers in our class so naturally we partnered up."  
  
"Give us an tactical evaluation Bosco."  
  
"Both are too damn good for comfort. Miller's probably th' better soldier, but Finn is more of th' leader and planner type. He's also kind of a dick."  
  
"And why would you say that?" the Colonel was now sitting up straight and staring at the big sergeant.  
  
"He's full of himself. Believes his own hype. You know th' kind. Problem is, he's really smart and really good. But he thinks he knows it all. Once he's made his mind up, he's got a hard time unmakin'it."  
  
"Good, we can work with that. We need more intel. Buffy!"  
  
"Yes si...I mean Hannibal!"  
  
"First off, relax a little. Second, can you show Face here," he pointed at Peck, "Where the post dry cleaner is?"  
  
"Uh sure..?"  
  
"Got it Colonel, what rank and branch?"  
  
"O-4 or higher and Military Intelligence Face. I need the two of you to get into that SCIF and find out what their game is. Captain!"  
  
Murdock straightened up, "Yes Hannibal?"  
  
"We need our own aerial recon assets."  
  
"No problem," The pilot looked over at Wright, "Can you give me and Billy a ride into town?" he pointed at an empty spot on the floor next to him.  
  
Wright did a double take until Bosco spoke up, "Just ignore th' fool when he goes off th' rails. That's what we all do."  
  
"Sure thing Sarge...Uh could you come this way Captain."  
  
"Delighted to. Come on Billy! We're going for a ride in a car!"  
  
"Bosco. NCO club and any local hangouts where Miller and Finn might be hanging out off-duty. Tag their vehicles and their phones if you can. Avoid contact if possible."  
  
"On it Hannibal."  
  
"Master Sergeant, can you get me a staff car...?"

 

**Hostile Territory**

I waited in Lieutenant Peck's white Corvette while he ran inside the post dry-cleaners to just, "Pick up some things." Things in this case being two suit bags. Driving behind an empty barracks, he stopped, opened the trunk, and began putting rank insignia, ribbon bars and nameplates on the two Class A uniforms he pulled from the garment bags.  
  
"Here you go Captain Doland, put your uniform on."  
  
"Huh?" my Buffy brain was trying to deal with the sudden change of conversation.  
  
"Come on. I know you're still a 2nd Lieutenant, but today you're getting a field promotion...at least as long as we're in the SCIF."  
  
"Ohhhhhh," I took the uniform that was handed me and saw that Peck was stripping down and changing into one as well. He had turned his back to give me a small semblance of privacy so I did the same and changed as quickly as possible. At least he had gotten me one with pants rather than the skirt.  
  
In a few minutes I was 'Captain Doland' of and Peck was Colonel Walters of the 18th Airborne Corps. With quick digital photos and some fiddling around with a laptop and small printer we soon had IDs matching our new uniforms.  
  
"Gladys???"  
  
"Sorry. Had to find someone with the right kind of clearance," at least he did sound apologetic.  
  
"This time I'll let it slide," I made a fist, "If it happens again....."  
  
Peck visibly paled, "Have I told you how much I truly respect strong women?"  
  
"No, but now is a really good time to make with the start-age."  
  
"Can we say I did and get to work?"  
  
"Good enough for now ."  
  
He handed me a briefcase, a Sat-Phone, and a pair of glasses, "Camera's in the nosepiece. Touch the earpieces together to turn it on and off. Keep it turned off until we're through security."  
  
I nodded, "Got it."

  
After stopping at the post motor pool to pick up the staff car the Master Sergeant had scrounged for us, we headed over to the secure section of the post.  
  
I didn't hit anything and even held the speed down to normal levels, but my passenger still seemed nervous. At least he didn't do the scream of bloodcurdling terror, as some of my passengers have been known to. So I counted this trip on the win side of the scale.   
  
Finally we arrived at the security station. The MP on duty looked bored. Fortunately he wasn't one of the ones I had met.  
  
"IDs please."  
  
We passed them over and I had a brief jet of fear on whether they would work or not. A few seconds later he handed them back and saluted. I drove forward to the inner gate as the outer gate slid shut behind us. The inner guards were Wackenhut not military. Wackenhut are contracted as the primary rent-a-cops of the US Government. They have a reputation of CIA involvement and were a major contractor in Afghanistan for rear area security.  
  
"Interesting. You seen these guys before, Gladys?"  
  
I scowled at him, "No. I didn't even know they were here," at least he had the decency to flinch from my glare.  
  
He flipped quickly through some cards in his wallet and slipped one into his ID folder as one of the guards stepped forward and signaled for Peck to roll down his window.  
  
"Names?"  
  
Peck spoke up, "Colonel Rothschild Walters and Captain Gladys Doland," he passed over our ID wallets. As the guard walked back to his desk to verify them I whispered to Peck, "What was that card you put in there?"  
  
"Attachment orders to the General Accounting Office. It really puts contractors off their game when they think an audit is imminent."  
  
By the time the guard got back Peck had a legal pad out of his briefcase and was writing notes in some sort of shorthand. He took a little extra time to study the guard's badge and nameplate before jotting something down and only then rolling down the window again.  
  
The guard looked very nervous, "Yes sir, pull through. An escort will meet you in the parking area."  
  
"Thank you. Captain?"  
  
I nodded and as soon as the inner gate swung open, drove into the Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility parking lot.

  
The lot was filled with humvees and the black SUVs I had previously encountered.  
  
"Summers, Which was the vehicle the boss was using?"  
  
I glanced around until I saw the license plate, "That one, by the main entrance to the building."  
  
Peck's hand slipped into his pocket and he handed me a small black metal box, "GPS transponder. Can you get it on that truck while I divert attention?"  
  
I nodded, "I think so. Anywhere in specific?"  
  
"Just somewhere it won't get noticed, wheel wells are good. Go in 30."   
  
As we had been quietly talking, we had been moving towards the main entrance. The guard at the door stiffened. He was carrying an MP5 sub-machinegun and a lot of attitude. Peck walked right up to him and began looking him over carefully.  
  
"Captain, this contract employee is not properly equipped in accordance with AR 600-25. Chapter 6, section 8, subsection b. His ID tag is easily half an inch too short and the font is not serif. Very unfortunate. Also he has too few magazines for his assigned primary weapon."  
  
The guard was starting to look flustered and was concentrating on Peck. I took the opportunity to kneel down and slip the black box into the wheel well as I was apparently making sure my laces were tight. It slipped into place with a magnetic *click*.  
  
Peck was still going at it by the time our escort appeared. The guard looked like a nervous wreck, convinced that his appearance could cause a contract renegotiation.  
  
The escort was a man in a white lab coat, "I'm Dr. Angleman. What brings the GAO to our labs?"  
  
"Can we go inside sir? Security you know."  
  
"Yes yes of course," he waved his card over a silver box and as easy as that we were inside the SCIF.

  
I had been inside reconditioned barracks before, but nothing like this. Big plastic tubey hallways, like the ones from the end of E.T., were set up in the old brick ones. Carts of lab stuff were parked in various nooks and there were no real uniforms in sight. Internal security was wearing black BDUs and carrying M4s. I couldn't tell if they were civilian or military. I could feel, more than hear, the high pitched whine of lots of computery stuff.  
  
Dr. Angleman led us into what must have been an old squad bay but was now lined with translucent plastic and set up as some kind of briefing room.  
  
"So Colonel?"  
  
"The GAO is concerned about the funds allocated for PMC security provisioning DARPA-wide. And is looking for ways to reduce said security expenditures without giving up the level of protection. We understand your operation is under black budget rules, but is it possible to get any form of reduction of your expenditures?"  
  
As Peck had been speaking, I had taken off the glasses and while cleaning them a la Giles, had touched the earpieces together before putting them back on.  
  
"I think that would fall under Colonel Haviland's purview Colonel. Unfortunately he's not on site at the moment. He should be back later this afternoon though. Would you like him to contact you?"  
  
"...Yes," Peck sounded just slightly nervous, "That should be fine," he stood up from the table and handed the Doctor a business card. "Captain, we should be going. The Doctor is obviously busy and we are disrupting his work."  
  
"Yes sir. Going sir."

  
We left the same way we came in. Once we were past the outer gate Peck let out a sigh of relief.  
  
"What's wrong?" I asked.  
  
"George Haviland is what's wrong. He knows me and Hannibal on sight."

 

**Preventive Maintenance**

We were back at the Master Sergeant's office after Peck and I had returned our 'borrowed' uniforms. Peck had just told the Colonel about hearing about this Haviland guy.  
  
Colonel Smith was standing at the window twirling a cigar in his fingers, "Haviland huh...That means the Company's involved... Face, I need you to...cultivate someone at the post finance section."  
  
"Military or civilian?"  
  
"Either. We need more intel on what assets they have available. Payroll problems and unit assignments will help. Stay clear of the SCIF though. We don't need George spotting us."  
  
"Got it Hannibal," Peck left, leaving me and the Colonel alone.  
  
"Buffy?"  
  
"Yes Hannibal?"  
  
"Feel like breaking some more regulations?"  
  
"Anything to become a better officer sir."  
  
"Go back to your barracks and change into something less military."  
  
"Like what?"  
  
"Jeans, t-shirt, boots. Just make sure they aren't new or fashionable. Also, no makeup or flashy jewelry. That crucifix of yours is fine. After you've changed, I'll meet you in your barracks parking lot in half an hour. Understood?"  
  
"Yes sir."

  
The Colonel and I were sitting outside a small townhouse in a beat-up pickup truck.   
  
"That is the home address of Dr. Walsh. As you can see there are several cameras aimed at the front door and more than likely the back door as well," as he lectured he pointed out the areas in discussion. " The doors and windows are almost definitely alarmed and I wouldn't be surprised to find a motion detector or two inside. All alarms and video are being sent to a remote point. So Lieutenant. How do we get information out without being caught?"  
  
I looked at the unit. It was in the middle of a row of five and was two stories tall. It was like breaking into a sorcerer's lab I thought. Never go the obvious way because that's what's being guarded.   
  
"Doors and windows are out. Front and back are out...How about the roof?"  
  
"Very good. I had picked these up," reaching behind the seat he fished out a pair of used hard hats and orange safety vests and two pairs of heavy gloves, "while you were getting changed. Put them on now." He handed me a set and started putting on his own.  
  
Getting out of the truck we walked to the pick-up's bed and the Colonel flipped back a tarp revealing a set of aluminum ladders, a pair of tool belt and a canvas shoulder bag. I took one of the belts and buckled it on, feeling only slightly silly, then the two of us hauled the ladders to the end of the row of townhouses making sure to stay out of the camera's view.  
  
The ladders were six foot long sections that slotted together like a puzzle. We had six sections, so and only needed to use five of them. Colonel Smith buckled on his tool belt and slung the canvas bag over his shoulder. As we were getting ready a woman in a power suit came over.  
  
"Excuse me. Who are you and what are you doing here?"  
  
Hannibal pulled out a folded piece of paper from his shirt pocket, "Halliman's roofing. We got an inspection contract from All State Insurance. With all this rain they're concerned about shingles coming loose and having to pay out a fortune for roof damage and rot. If we find anything we'll let the company know and they'll let the unit management...I assume that's you?"  
  
She nodded.  
  
"...know so you can figure out how you want to handle it."  
  
"So you're just doing an inspection?"  
  
"Of just one of the units. Kind of a random spot check to see how the roof is holding out. And taking a few wood and shingle samples to check for rot. We won't even need to go inside and we should be done in an hour or so. I do need you to sign that though to prove when we arrived," he gestured at the paper in the woman's hand.  
  
"Oh? Oh sure. Let me know when you're done okay."  
  
"No problem."  
  
The woman walked away back to the office.  
  
"Hannibal, that was amazing."  
  
"Give me an hour, I'm good. Give me a day, I'm great. Give me six months, I'm unstoppable. Now Buffy, get up the ladder."

  
Once on the roof the Colonel moved carefully across until he was over Walsh's townhouse. I crept after him. Opening his bag he pulled out a variety of tools including a large battery powered saw and a small plastic gizmoey thing with a dial.  
  
He must've seen me doing the curious stare thing because he smiled and said, "Stud finder. So we don't cut into any beams."  
After waving it around the roof for while, he handed me a big putty knife and showed me where to start prying up the shingles. After the plywood of the actual roof was visible, he took a thick strip of cloth, wrapped it around the saw to muffle it, and carefully began cutting. He was through the roof and had an entrance in less than five minutes.  
  
He put the saw back in the bag and handed me a bunch of things that looked like lipstick tubes.  
  
"Lieutenant, these are cameras. I want you to slip in to that crawl space and plant them in the upstairs room's ceiling lights. Then clip this wire to the back of them here..." he pointed at one of the little fittings on the back of the lipstick. "If you can get a good view of her desk that would be perfect."  
  
I nodded and slithered through the small hole. The crawlspace was pretty big and I had room to step from joist to joist so I wouldn't crash through the ceiling below. I could feel the thin whining of something ultrasonic from inside the townhouse which meant that the Colonel had probably been right about motion detectors. The lights were recessed into ceiling pockets which let me simply lift them up and look through the hole into the room below.  
  
The bedroom had nothing but a double , a night stand with a clock radio, and a bookcase. It was scary clean, almost antiseptic. The only other rooms on the second floor were the bathroom (Which I did NOT put a camera in!), and a studyish area.  
  
There was a desk, a chair, and two bookcases. On the walls were all kinds of posters and notes so I set up three cameras to look at the walls and one to look straight down on the desk. After that I clipped on the wirey bits and carefully made my way back to the entrance.  
  
After I wiggled out I helped Hannibal slip the chunk of plywood back in after he had coated the edges with some sort of goop. Then we carefully glued the shingles back on.  
  
"That should do, now let's get out of here. We'll get her phone and internet after dark."  
  
In another twenty minutes we were gone.

 

**Field Work**

The A-Team, plus Wright and one newish Lieutenant, had regrouped at a motel. Sergeant Baracus had unloaded a variety of bags from his van and was in the process of setting up some seriously high tech communications gear.  
  
"Bosco, where does all this stuff come from?"  
  
The big NCO looked over at me, "Hannibal and Face mostly. I tell 'em what we need and Hannibal thinks for a second and tells Face where to get it."  
  
"So what does it all do? Technology and me, we never have been the bestest of buds you know. My best friend on the other hand, is serious genius level with computery stuff."  
  
Bosco started grinning as I slipped into my airhead Cali-girl act, "You are good El-Tee. Almost had me fooled, but I've been hangin' with the Colonel and Face for too damn long."  
  
I grinned back, "Thanks Sergeant. Coming from you I will take that as one of the best compliments I've received. So seriously, what does all this stuff do? I recognize a secure receiver and satlink, but that's about it."  
  
"Well th' guys we're trying to track have satellite access. We don't. There's only so many birds up there that they can use. What a lot of this stuff does is tap into their downlink signal so we can see what they see."  
  
"So how are we going to tap into the downlink?"  
  
"You want to come along?"  
  
"Oh yes indeedy!"

  
Bosco Albert Baracus was highly amused to find out I had the same first two initials as he did. He was from Chicago and missed not being able to see his mother as much as he wanted to. I understood completely.  
  
We were in his van heading to an obscure part of Fort Huachuca. When I had told the Colonel I was tagging along with Bosco, he had just smiled and returned to staring at the ceiling and thinking. So the Sergeant and I had jumped into the van and just taken off.  
  
We were out in one of the emptier areas of the post and up ahead was a small complex of satellite dishes and outbuildings.  
  
"Normally we'd do this at night, but we're sucking for time so we gotta do this thing now," he pulled the van off the road and behind some scrub.  
  
Slipping a back pack over one shoulder he motioned for me to follow him.  
  
"You see El-Tee, there's only a few places to decrypt what those satellites are sendin' back down. Mainly Fort Meade in Maryland. These guys you spotted are gettin' a real-time feed from the sounds of it so where are they receivin' it from?"  
  
He pointed at the antennas, "Face found out that DARPA just grabbed some of this station's bandwidth for 'Field Training', " he even made with the air quotes.  
  
"So if we tap into the outgoin' signal we see..."  
  
"...What they see!"  
  
"Very good El-Tee there's hope for you yet."  
  
I pouted at his back as we kept making our way towards the station.

  
We were crouched behind a clump of scrub just beyond the fence line. Bosco had pulled out some binoculars and was examining something inside the barrier. Reaching into his pack he pulled out what looked like a technical diagram, stared at it for a second, then looked back at the whatever-it-was.  
  
"El-Tee, can you see that gray box over on the left side beside that third antenna?" he pointed and I squinted.  
  
"The one with the red lettering all over it?"  
  
"No, th' one next to it. On the right."  
  
"Yes."  
  
"That's th' one I need to get into. There's two guards though and only one entrance through th' fence which they're both at."  
  
"And we can't let them know we're here..."  
  
"You got it."  
  
"I could just throw you over the fence."  
  
The look on his face was priceless.  
  
"You're shittin' me..."  
  
"Uhm...No."  
  
"You're that strong?"  
  
"Uhm...Yes."  
  
"What th' hell. Let's do it," we ran quickly to the edge, about six feet from the fence. I made a stirrup with my hands and Bosco began running towards me. As he stepped into the stirrup I threw him up and over. He easily cleared the fence by a good three feet before rolling into a perfect parachute landing fall. I stepped away from the fence a little more to get a decent start and soon joined him.  
  
"Guess you really are that strong BA jr."  
  
"Thanks Pops."  
  
We moved over to the cabinet in question and Bosco showed me how to check for alarms and basic lock picking as he opened it up. As he clipped his gadgets and thingamabobs into place, he explained what each one of them did.  
  
"Thanks for the lessons."  
  
"It's th' duty of every NCO to make sure that their Lieutenants aren't total fools," he grinned.  
  
"I hope I'm not a total fool."  
  
"Of course you are, you're a 2nd Lieutenant. It's part of your standin' orders."  
  
"Thanks Pops."  
  
"No charge Junior. Now let's get out of here."

  
One fling and a leap later we back at the van and heading back to the motel.  
  
"You did good back there El-Tee."  
  
"Thanks Bosco. You guys have been great."  
  
"Just watch out for Murdock. That fool is crazy."

 

**Air Mobile**

"So Lieutenant Summers. Did Bosco teach you anything useful?"  
  
Hannibal was still in his stare at the ceiling pose, unlit cigar in mouth.  
  
"Uh yes Colonel. I've been learning a lot from you guys."  
  
"Good to hear. Superb physical abilities are nice, but to succeed, you have to be able to function even when everything is stacked against you."  
  
I wasn't sure how to respond so I just nodded.  
  
He sat up straight, "Bosco, take Buffy over to the airport and drop her off with Murdock. Lieutenant, Murdock may seem a little odd..."  
  
"Huh?! Seem?! Th' fool is crazy!" Pops was rolling his eyes.  
  
"...but he is the finest pilot I've ever worked with. He knows what he's doing. Even when it sounds like he couldn't possibly be functioning as a rational human being."  
  
"I've worked with crazy before."  
  
"Excellent! The two of you will get on fine."

  
There is crazy. There is insane. And then there is Captain H.M. Murdock.  
  
At the moment we were in a rented crop-duster doing aerobatics above the Arizona desert. Actually Murdock was doing the aerobatics and I was hanging on and enjoying the ride.  
  
"So Buff what do you think?" his voice was tinny in the in-flight intercom.  
  
"BA was right. You are crazy, but in a good way," at the moment we were plummeting straight down towards the desert at top speed. I was reasonably sure that he would be able to pull out of the dive before we became road kill.  
  
"The big guy said that? He's so considerate," without missing a beat he easily pulled up, missing the sand by a good thirty feet, "I'll have to get him a fruit basket or something. Maybe bath salts?"  
  
I waited until my stomach had returned to its normal location before answering, "Bath salts are nice. Lavender scented?"  
  
"That's a great idea! I'm sure he'll love it. In fact I'll give it from both of us as well as Billy."  
  
"Billy's your invisible dog right?"  
  
"Yeah. the big guy doesn't seem to like him much so I make sure all the presents I get him are signed from Billy. Maybe that will warm him up."  
  
I snickered quietly, "Well the sergeant sure won't ever forget receiving any of them."  
  
"Exactly! How about another loop?"

  
Eventually Murdock had gotten the aerobatics out of his system and we started our real job. Trying to find out where the black-ops team had set up their advance headquarters/base camp. As I had been pouring over the maps for this area for my classes, I was an obvious choice for finding where the most likely places would be; given a particular set of mission requirements.  
  
They would want: altitude for better lines of sight (both visual and radio), inaccessibility for privacy, a road reasonably close for equipment movement, and probably a fairly level area for helicopter staging. Those requirements shredded the potential thousands or millions of acres down to a much more easily searchable area.  
  
Still it was a huge area, and Murdock had to be very careful not to fly into restricted airspace; unless we _really_ wanted to be talking to the USAF in an up-close and missily kind of way.  
  
As he flew he kept up this hilarious stream of consciousness thingy split up by suggestions on what kind of things I should be looking for. This meant I was either laughing or learning the entire flight.  
  
By the time the flight was over it was about 1800hours and we had covered about a quarter of the possible sites. "Buff, you have an FTX starting tomorrow don't you?"  
  
I nodded then groaned, "I haven't even finished packing my field gear!"  
  
"Don't worry about it. Hannibal already arranged for Bosco to take care of it. He also made sure we had secure comms in case something happens to your class."  
  
"Does he always have a plan?"  
  
"Of course, even and especially when he doesn't," he was swinging around and preparing to land. "Hannibal and Bosco will be out in the field keeping an eye on you while Face and myself will be continuing the search from the air, okay?"  
  
"Okay. Thanks Murdock."  
  
"All part of the service, you have a good night and do well on your tests."  
  
"Good night and good night Billy," Murdock had a huge grin on his face as after he dropped me off he taxied over to the fueling point. Pops was waiting by the hanger.  
  
"You ready to get back to th' barracks Junior?"  
  
"Sure. I have to get my beauty sleep."  
  
"Today's army..."

 

**School Days**

As ordered by the great gods of training, there was a thunderstorm as I was getting ready the next morning.  
  
Now I have been miserable in many different, exciting and even exotic ways, but nothing tops standing in formation in the rain. I passed the time waiting for the instructors to join us by counting the water drops falling off the brim of my helmet and trying not to feel clammy.  
  
Finally after one short eternity and two long ones they arrived and went through the standard briefings and warnings. Then we loaded up onto the waiting trucks and were dragged out to one of the more remote parts of the post where we were supposed to set up and run a Brigade level intelligence center. At least the rain had cut back to a continuous, but still annoying, drizzly mist.  
  
I got put in charge of the Operations Center tent set-up. And soon my crack team of 2nd LTs had it assembled in more or the correct way, and were inside arranging desks and chairs while attempting to dry out.   
  
We were in the middle of a lively discussion about whether we should compensate for the small river flowing through the center of the tents with appropriate Feng Shui when our senior instructor entered.  
  
"All right. From this moment on, you are part of the 4th Combined Brigade Task Force. Your mission is to provide accurate intelligence to Brigade command. The task force was hurriedly setup due to a call for assistance by the Democratic Republic of Pineland who have been invaded by the People's Nation of Krasnovia," he stopped, looked around to see if we were getting this.  
  
"You have control of two Military Intelligence General Support companies and can call on limited satellite and aerial recon assets. Your unit Commander will be chosen at regular intervals by the instructors. All twenty of you will get your chance to screw up or be a star so don't worry if you aren't called first. Got it?"  
  
He waited until there was a chorus of yes sirs then continued, "First in the hot seat is Lieutenant Brewster. You get to set up the teams and get shit ready to work. Exercise proper starts in an hour so get busy."  
  
Brewster started slotting people into teams and I volunteered for (and got) perimeter security report before being assigned to first shift operations.  
  
In case you didn't know, Military Intelligence is based off something called an 'Intelligence Cycle'. This is a confusing term designed to freak out poor junior officers when they should be having a good time.  
  
Anyway this cycle breaks down into five phases, apologies for sounding tweedish.  
  
1\. Plan and Direct. The big boss tells us proles, what kind of information about the bad guys they want.  
  
2\. Collecting. Us poor proles, go out and gather information through a whole bunch of different ways.  
  
3\. Processing. Then we get to pound our heads against the table trying to figure out what all these unrelated bits of information mean.  
  
4\. Produce. When we finally have figured out what we think it means, we have to figure out how that is important to the big boss's request.  
  
5\. Dissemination. We tell the big boss what we know and what we think we know and sit back until the next request comes in.  
  
The way this actually works in an Field Training Exercise is that one of the instructors gives us our "Big Boss" request. We tell our notional MI company troops what they should be looking for. The instructors tell us what the "companies" have found out. We try to figure out what it means and get that to the instructors. Simple huh?  
  
Well occasionally the instructor picks a new commanding officer, information from our "MI companies" is garbled or just wrong, intelligence requests get changed on the fly, and other fun things. In addition I had to figure out if we were a target for whatever was out there, so my calendar was completely filled.

  
It had been about fourteen hours since the exercise had started and even I was starting to feel tired. I got my turn as CO and didn't screw up tooo badly I hoped. At least I never heard the dread, "Lieutenant explain your decision...again."  
  
I had been trying to stick to map analysis and reconnaissance and surveillance planning, as those were my weakest and strongest skills. So far I wasn't bringing the suckage with either, which made me more than a little happy. And I was overjoyed when it was my shift's time to crash. I gulped down a tasty tasty MRE and slipped into my little tent before digging out the compact radio Bosco had left for me.  
  
"Junior to Pops. Junior to Pops. Come in Pops."  
  
"Pops here, hang on for the Colonel."  
  
Soon Hannibal's voice came over the handset.  
  
"Not bad Lieutenant. You're doing quite well according to the instructors."  
  
"How do you know that sir?"  
  
"Face bugged all their commo gear last night."  
  
"Ahhh...I see sir. Did Captain Murdock and Face spot anything today?"  
  
"Actually yes. We think we spotted the Black Ops team's base camp. It's about two kilometers due west of you up on a ridgeline. Can you check it out?"  
  
"Sure. But what if there's a pop inspection or drill or something? If I get caught away from the exercise..."  
  
"Don't worry, Face grabbed the training schedule. There's nothing like that till 0225. As long as you're back by then you should be fine. If anything does happen you'll be covered...Trust me."  
  
"Alright Hannibal, this is me trusting you. But if anything goes wrong..."  
  
"Got it Lieutenant. Now continue mission!"

  
Slipping out of the training area was stupidly easy. The on duty shift were too busy to look, the off duty shift were craving naps and the instructors were trying to stay awake and engaged in the exercise. At least the rain had stopped and a hot wind from the south was drying everything off fairly quickly.  
  
I made my way to the foot of the ridgeline as fast as I could, while using the various scrub and scattered rocks for cover. I figured there had to be night vision and thermal gear being used and I didn't want to take any chances. I stopped when there was a buzz in my earpiece.  
  
"Get under cover! Th' satellite is being re-tasked to scan!"  
  
"Thanks Pops!" I rolled under a outcrop and waited for an all clear.  
  
"Okay they're swinging th' camera east. Go Go Go!"  
  
Rolling to my feet I took off and sprinted for the draw next to the ridgeline.  
  
"Did they pick me up?" I slipped into an overhang.  
  
"Naw Junior, you're cool. Th' camera passed over their camp though. I count fifteen personnel, three vehicles, two tents, and a generator."  
  
"Remind me to thank them for the intel-ish help."  
  
"No problem. I'm sending the image to your phone."  
  
"Thanks Pops, Junior out."

  
Using the satellite photo as a map, I plotted my route up the draw to avoid all the little heat blobs with potential guns and radios. With a cheat sheet it wasn't hard at all.  
  
I was now crouched outside one of the tents trying to listen in over the growl of a generator. A woman, Doctor Walsh I think, was talking to two of her men.  
  
"This is fifth time we've had definite contact and the second time we've tried for a capture. The '97 operation was a disaster, probably because the locals got involved. That will not happen this time. Understood Sergeant Finn?"  
  
"Yes ma'am. What makes you think it will strike tonight though?"  
  
"The weather is optimal and there is a unit on a training exercise right next to its predicted hunting range. If my predictions are correct, there is no way it could resist a target like that. All we have to do is wait until it strikes and then go in for the capture as it's lazily finishing up its prey."  
  
"We're not going to intercept its attack?"  
  
"No sergeant. Capture will be much easier if it thinks it has been successful again..."

 

**War Path**

It took all my control to keep from tearing through the tent's sidewall and demolishing Doctor Walsh. Those were my classmates she was offering up as involuntary baitage!  
  
A new person entered the tent, "Ma'am we have a signature moving in on the trainees from the south. Looks like Target Alpha. Should have contact with their perimeter in twenty minutes."  
  
"Alright. Sergeant Finn, get your capture troops ready, we leave now. You, get the satellite tasked to track Target Alpha."  
  
"Yes ma'am!"  
  
"Understood ma'am!"  
  
I moved away towards one of the perimeter guards. Taking him out was easy and now I had an M4 plus ammunition, as well as one of their radios. Moving back down into the draw with my unwilling weapons donor, I called Hannibal and gave him the what the what I had heard.  
  
"Good job Lieutenant, we're on the move towards your position. Do you need anything from us right now?"  
  
"Can Bosco screw up their sat-link with that tap thingy? That might slow them down some if they lose coverage."  
  
"I'm sure something can be done about that. Anything else?"  
  
"No, I'm armed and angry. I should be good."  
  
"Roger that, Smith out."

  
I can run fast. Really really fast. I used to be able to get from one side of Sunny-D to the other in less than half an hour. Tonight, I think I could have done it in fifteen minutes.  
  
I finally slowed down on the south side of our FTX site and found a good rock to hide behind.  
  
"Junior to Old Guys. Junior to Old Guys. I'm in position."  
  
"Who you callin' old, midget?"  
  
"You Pops. Did you fix their reception?"  
  
"Oh yeah. All they're gettin' now is C-SPAN2."  
  
"Evil."  
  
"Thanks Junior. The Colonel wants to know if you've got company?"  
  
I took a peek around the rock, "Not yet but I've still got a few minutes."  
  
"Well, holler if you need us, Pops out," as he signed off I peeked around the rock again and quickly held my breath. I had just seen the leaf of a yucca bend as if something had brushed against it. Straining my eyes I could just see a faintish soap-bubbly sheen in the air. Listening carefully was the next trick in the Slayer book. There was a low growling ticking sound, a faint whine like a TV warming up and the crunch of something heavy moving carefully across sand.   
  
An invisible hunter, this should be interesting. I hadn't fought something like this since Marcy back in sophomore year. It's nocturnal so its eyes and ears are at least as good as mine, probably better. I can pick up a faint smell of electricity. Weirdly it doesn't 'feel' demony.  
  
It was coming straight for me so I scooped up a rock as quietly as possible and flicked it off to my right. In the quiet it sounded like an avalanche suddenly crashing down. After the initial crash there was a roar, then a real explosion complete with bright flash of light and the smell of a lightning bolt hitting close. I didn't waste any time rolling over behind a different rock, just before the demon crashed down where I had been hiding.  
  
It was big, the warping of the air made it seem like it was over seven foot tall. It had clawed feet, judging by its footprints which were visible and three little red dots of light where swooping back and forth across the ground and rocks like they were searching for something. Well they were. Me.  
  
Looking past it I saw the bush where I had tossed the rock was on fire and smoking. Suddenly the demon spun around as nest as I could tell, and a blast of blue lighty type stuff shot out from roughly where its head would be. There was a yelp as I saw a coyote get barbecued in the blast. Then scary fast it was facing towards the FTX site again.  
  
I had to get it away from the other trainees. So I did what came naturally. I was annoying.  
  
"Uhm excuse me?" I stood up, rifle behind my back.  
  
"Exxxxxx cuuuuse meeeee..." it spoke and even kinda sounded like me if I had swallowed a bag of gravel and a Speak & Spell while having a serious head cold.  
  
"Why do you want to kill us?"  
  
"Wannnnt tooo killl..."  
  
"Is it for business or pleasure? Cause if it's for business did you fill out the right forms? But if it's for pleasure, do you have your human license?"  
  
"Waaaant toooo killll youuuu..."  
  
The three red dots traveled across the ground, and were in the process of going up my leg when I moved. I flipped to the side just as another blob of that blue lighty stuff blew up where I had been standing.   
  
"That could've hurt!" I squeezed off a short burst into the demon before retreating away from the training site. Just as I hoped it followed me.

  
It was big, fast, and tough. I was sure I had hit it with that first burst, but it didn't appear to be slowing down at all and kept chasing after me at full steamage. Occasionally it would fire one of those blue lighty blobs and once it shot some kind of metally net at me.  
  
I was faster than it though and was able to dodge its best attempts to crispy critter me. It had dropped the invisibility by this time, and from what I could tell it was trying to bring dreadlocks back to the mainstream single-handedly and not succeeding that well. That and it had a serious metal mask.  
  
Whenever I got a chance I'd fire a few rounds at it just to keep it interested you know, as I ran across the desert. I had the advantage though. I knew where I was going and I had plannage!  


 

**Blood Bath**

Running across a desert in the middle of the night being chased by a giant demonic Bob Marley minus the world is love vibe and who occasionally tried blasting me with glowey explodey blue goop was different, even for me. I have done a lot of strange things in my life, but this one was jumping to the top of the list.  
  
I had burned through the magazine that was in the M4 and reloaded once. I thought I had about a half left in the one in the weapon plus two full spares. That was about 70 rounds or so. I was pretty sure I had hit it at least a few more times, but it was as least as tough as an Inyani beast or a Rakoshi, and had that same annoying tendency to not fall down and stay dead.  
  
My earpiece squawked.  
  
"Yo Buffy! Ready for some air support?"  
  
I looked up and saw the shadowy form of a crop-duster diving straight at me. I dropped prone just as it whooshed overhead. There was a keflumpfhing sound and a horrible ammonia-ey smell as a ton of high grade fertilizer was spread evenly over the demon and the surrounding countryside.  
  
Rolling over to look behind me I saw the impact had knocked it flat, but it was getting back up and I could tell it was out for blood.  
  
"Murdock get clear! It has anti-aircraft!"  
  
"You sure?" at that moment it started lobbing glowey blobs at the plane. Now that I wasn't the target, I could tell they were actually coming from a mechanical thingy on its shoulder.  
  
While Murdock was flinging the plane around trying to stay un-crispied, I set the M4 to single-shot. Sighted in on the thingy. And squeezed the trigger.  
  
The bullet ripped into it sending out all kinds of cool sparkage and chunks. That locked its attention back to me and the chase was on again.

  
"Junior to Old Guys. Junior to Old Guys. I have a plan, but I need you to slow down the humans."  
  
"This is Smith. Understood Junior, don't worry about them. The Lieutenant and I have already handled that. Choke point 350 meters northwest your current location."  
  
"Got it, Junior out!" I angled northwest and kept running.  
  
I saw the traces of road in the starlight and followed them as they entered into the canyon. Up ahead I saw vehicle head lights. Slinging the M4, I pulled the hood of my field jacket over my hair and pulled up the neck of my t-shirt to cover the lower half of my face. Then I unslung the rifle and shot out the headlights of the lead SUV.  
  
It was like kicking an anthill. All three SUVs slammed to a halt and started clown-car-ing angry armed guys. Fortunately their eyes hadn't dark adapted yet so any fire they aimed my way was pretty damn inaccurate. Also it's pretty hard to hit a small human sized target moving at 30 or so miles per hour. Anyway they didn't get more than a few shots off before I was in their faces. I ran up and over the hood of the first SUV and leaped on to the roof of the second. I saw Walsh standing beside it so I grabbed her and kept running up the slope shooting out the rear tires of the last vehicle in the convoy as I passed. The yells and roars mixed with gunfire I heard behind me let me know that the demon was still right on my tail.  
  
"Who are you? What's going on?" I have to give Walsh credit, she kept her cool.  
  
"I'm the thing that gives things like that nightmares. You picked the wrong place and time to sacrifice trainees for a capture."  
  
"What are you?"  
  
"Sorry Doctor Walsh, that's above your clearance. Let's just say in some fields, you  _are_  so not the expert you think you are..."   
  
I had gotten to the box canyon and set Walsh down after removing her pistol.  
  
"Yo Junior!"  
  
"Pops?"  
  
"Th' Colonel said you'd draw it back here. They dropped me off as back up. That Walsh?"  
  
"Yeah, I thought she'd like to see the show. How did the Colonel know I'd come back here?"  
  
"That's th' kinda thing he does. Freaks me out sometimes," Bosco stepped out of the shadows. He was wearing all black and had a balaclava that covered his face. He tossed me a balaclava as well.  
  
"Who are you people?" Walsh was standing there looking furious.  
  
"More human than you that's for sure. Doc, you might want to get out of the way. The guest of honor is on their way..." I slipped the balaclava on and grinned, "...and I just can't wait to welcome them."

 

**Show Down**

I stood in the middle of the forty foot wide area at the end of the canyon. I figured it would come at us from above so I was studiously avoiding looking up and apparently focusing my attention towards the canyon entrance. Walsh was hiding behind a rock and Bosco was backed against the back canyon wall under an overhang for extra cover. I had given him the M4 and gotten an M9 bayonet in exchange, so he was there to provide cover fire if necessary.  
  
I had been waiting for about a minute when I heard the faint scrape of claws on stone. Behind, up, and to the left. I tried to slow my heart rate, failed miserably, and was already rolling when I heard the whizz of something moving fast through the air.  
  
A metallic disc passed through the place where my head had been, cut a gouge in the stone canyon wall then sailed back around like a boomerang. I tracked its flight as I rolled to my feet and saw it grabbed out of the air by a familiar demonic paw. It was not expecting me to shoot it twice in the faceplate with Walsh's Beretta. I was not expecting it to throw a spear at me. Fair is fair I guess.  
  
It clipped me in the shoulder leaving what felt like a nasty gouge. The impact spun me pretty good though. This thing was easily as strong as me, actually probably stronger. By the time I had recovered, it had pulled off its facemask and jumped down to the sand next to me.

  
It was at least two feet taller than me and had yellowish leathery skin but it wasn't naked. It was wearing netting and straps and had a high techy looking gauntlet on its left arm and what looked like a mechanical right leg. A whole bunch of pouches were attached to the straps and around its waist was a belt of human and demon skulls.  
  
"Exxxxx cuuuuuse Meeeee..." it was glaring down at me when it spoke.  
  
Its face was a major wiggins. Pincers and a sucker kind of mouth and way more forehead than Ben Affleck. Hearing a weirded version of my voice coming out of that mouth gave me the shiveries.  
  
Time to step up and show it whose the sheriff here.  
  
"I hope you can understand me..."  
  
"Cannnn understannnnnd."  
  
"Ah right. It is just a bad idea to try to do the random killing and terrorizing when I'm in the area. It's kind of my job to squash the ick when it, and in this case it equals you, shows up." I glowered back at it after my intimidating speech and tried not to focus on the slime dripping from its pincers.  
  
"Youuu....cannnn understannnnnd.....squaaaaash..."  
  
That wasn't of the good. I flipped backwards just as a set of nasty looking claws popped out of the gauntlet as it tried to sucker punch me.  
  
"Pops! Stay clear!" I darted in and tried a leg sweep, ducking another claw strike as I slid under its reach. Connecting felt like I had hit a concrete block, but I did push it to the side about six feet. A nasty little barrel popped out of a fancy bracelet it wore on its right arm and I could see blue glowey stuff building up inside. I kipped up and launched a flying kick at its head just as BA plowed into the back of its knees.  
  
Off balance it fired the goo into the canyon wall just missing Walsh by a few feet, before landing on its back.  
  
"I said keep clear."  
  
"Th' Colonel will tell you, we're all pretty bad at followin' orders. Especially him."  
  
"Why didn't you shoot it?"  
  
"You were way too close. You get hurt th' Colonel hurts me."  
  
"Men!" I wound up and punched the rising to its feet demon in the stomach. It made a pretty awesome expression of what I think was surprise, shook its head, and punched me back.  
  
After flying through the air with the greatest of ease I finally skidded to a stop and, gulping air, tried to get my breath back. It wasn't probably stronger, more like definitely.  
  
"Pops," I croaked, "Do  _not_  let it hit you!"  
  
"Damn! I thought you were tougher than that..."  
  
"Old guy makes a funny. I'll laugh when I can find my lung."  
  
As I staggered to my feet I watched BA ducking, weaving, and punching with an occasional kick thrown in for flavor. He wasn't even close to that things weight class in raw strength or speed, but in skill he was way better.   
  
I finally got my wind back and slapped BA on the shoulder, "Tagging in! And thanks for ignoring my order..."  
  
He had taken some pretty good hits and it looked like his nose was broken.  
  
"Remind me not to do it again Junior, good luck!" He slipped back out of the way and there I was, facing the demon.  
  
"Hi," I said in a low voice, "Let's try this again. My name is Buffy and I'll be your designated slayer tonight. Our special is your messy messy death. Would you like to start with a complimentary eye gouging?"  
  
It roared, I dodged, "I'll take that as a no. How about a hamstringing?" I swiped low with the bayonet and cut a nice groove on the back of its fleshy leg. Green glowing blood dripped out.  
  
"Oooo pretty! Can I get some more?"  
  
Now I was sure it understood me because it went berserk. It lost whatever form it had tried to use before and switched to trying to outmuscle me. This I could deal with. That, plus the fact that it had forgotten it had nasty Buffy-B-Que making toys and was now sticking with its claws.  
  
I managed to cut it a few more times and kick it in the head once, but its stupid long reach kept me on the defensive. It was probably going to wear me down unless I got creative. And then it cut my bayonet into little tiny chunks.

  
I dropped the now useless hilt and weighed my options. It wasn't used to fighting something my size that had my kind of strength and speed, but then again, not many things are. I needed a weapon. Something to even out the reach...  
  
I backed flipped away from another lunge and pulled its spear out of the stone wall it had been embedded in. It was surprisingly light even for its length and thickness. Dropping into a staff stance I spun it around my body, checking the balance and heft. This would do.

 

**Beat Down**

It watched me and adjusted its stance slightly. Walsh was trying to become one with the canyon wall. Obviously she was not used to not being the one in charge. Bosco was snapping his nose back in to some kind of shape, and I was squaring off against something that outweighed me by about four to one. Just another day at the office.  
  
"So, how good are you really?" I spun and swung with a low to high s-pattern while gripping the spear at one end. I missed low but caught it on the side of the head with the high return strike. Enough of sharpy bit at the tip connected to cut in and leave a glowing green line.  
  
"Tag! You're it!"  
  
"Exxx cuuusse...Meeeee..."  
  
"Sorry, there's no excuse for you," I parried two punches and a kick as I walked him away from where Bosco was clearing his head.  
  
"Messssssyy messsssyy...death..."  
  
This was bad, I was getting tired and now it was using my own snark back at me. That's just not fair! I feinted left with the spear and tried for a strategic front kick...If the wolfman has them, why not other demons right? It stepped to the side and I bounced my foot off its metal leg probably breaking some toes and definitely ruining what was left of my pedi. The impact did make it stumble pretty well, so I launched a spinning elbow at its neck quickly followed by a staff assisted arm bar on its clawed hand.  
  
The arm bar worked a little too well jamming the spear onto the tips of the claws and with our combined strengths snapping them off the gauntlet and sending the spear flying into a wall thirty feet up. I did catch it with the elbow though, causing it to start coughing and sputtering as I back pedaled clear.  
  
How to take it down? Mobility first. Run in, fake a leap, then baseball slide into the meat leg! And the crowd goes wild!  
  
It crashed down almost on top of me, "Snooze, you lose. That's a rule or something," as I rolled to my feet, I side kicked it in the left hip. Unfortunately the only crunching sound I heard was from some of the skulls I obliterated, but it did take it longer to turn to face me as it drew a heavy bladed machete looking thing from the side of its metal leg. Wonderful.  
  
I feinted left, broke right and ran past it as fast as possible heading for the canyon wall before jumping for the spear embedded high overhead. The impact on my poor abused toes almost made me scream, but I had been hurt worse. I hit the wall about ten feet short and scrabbled for any hand or footholds, more than likely looking like a cracked out mutant spider. I felt something pop in my chest, felt like a rib or two, from an outcrop I had bashed into. I slid down till that outcrop was in my hands stretched above my head, locked my fingers, and pulled down as hard as I could.  
  
I rocketed up the wall so fast I almost smashed my head against the spear. Luckily I slid past it instead of into it and was able to grab it as I passed by. Glancing down I saw BA dueling it using the M4 as a baton. I adjusted my grip on the spear, braced my feet, and heaved. I had enough time falling to adjust my landing and crashed down in a rolling crouch.  
  
"Tagging in..."

  
I was hurting, but so was it. It's left leg wasn't moving as smoothly as it had before, two of its pincery mouth bits were shattered, it looked like one of its eyes was swollen shut, and its breathing was all raspy...well raspier than it had sounded before. In fact every time it breathed some of its green blood bubbled out of its mouth. Internal bleeding sounded good to me.  
  
We circled each other in our current hobbly gaits. My foot was feeling wet and squishy inside my boot and there was a copper taste to my breath. It was dragging its left leg and it looked like its right hand might have been messed up from when the claws got broken off.  
  
"Okay, let's do this..."  
  
It's reach with the blade was about the same as mine with the spear so the next few passes did a lot of weapon contact and sparkage but no solid hits. I could feel exhaustion rolling over me and it was getting harder to breath. This had to be finished quick. I managed to poke it once in the left leg so now it was basically dragging it around. It had punched me on my burned shoulder so I was starting to lose control of my arm. This was bad. I was going to die in a box canyon in Arizona and the thing that killed me was going to keep on cutting a swath through anybody it found... That ... WAS ... _NOT_... **GOING**... ** _TO HAPPEN!!!_**  
  
I think I might of screamed that as I backed up then ran and, using the spear, pole-vaulted over the demon landing behind it. I started with a joint kick to the back of its mechanical knee buckling it nicely then a pair of hammer fists to the sides of its throat once it was down to my level. Then placing my fingers under its jaw, I started a rear chin-lock while bridging its spine as hard as possible. It rolled around trying to break free, but with the additional swelling my hammer fists had caused, and the blockage of its trachea from the over reverse flex of its spineage, it was having a seriously rough time trying to even breath at all.  
  
It kept rolling for a few more seconds until it finally stopped moving completely. I didn't stop pulling though and finally with a nasty cracking pop was holding its head in my hands.  
  
"Damn Junior...You are truly hardcore."  
  
"Taking off the head makes sure most dead things stay dead. Important safety tip."  
  
"I'll keep that in mind."  
  
I swayed to my feet and looked over at BA. He stunk of blood and his left arm hung loosely by his side, "You going to be okay Pops?"  
  
"You should see th' other guy," I grinned at that, "What about her Junior?" he pointed over at Walsh who looked almost catatonic.  
  
"Guess this wasn't clinical enough for her," I scooped up the thing's sword and checked its balance. Not bad actually. I took a practice swing and turned at Walsh's gasp as three more demons flickered into view.  
  
All of them were wearing similar style armor that was at least color coordinated unlike the first one's.  
  
"It belong to you?" I pointed at the corpse.  
  
The lead one growled out, "Itttt beeeeelonggg..." before waving the other two forward. The pair moved up and began stripping the corpse naked, even pulling off the mechanical leg. They even picked up the bits of claw that were scattered across the sand.  
  
I continued to watch them as my boot continued to fill with blood and my messed up ribs kept jabbing me. There was no way I could take out all three in my current condition, but at least I could slow them down long enough for BA and Walsh to get clear. The nearest demon doing clean up first. Its hands were full. I took a deep breath and centered myself. At least would do the uniform, rank, and Oath of Commission proud, as these certainly counted as 'enemies foreign or domestic'.  
  
Just as I was ready to launch the leader stepped up to me. The little cannon on its shoulder pointed right at my face.  
  
"Give..." it gestured at the head which was still in my left hand. I automatically handed it over. Very aware of potential blue glowey death.  
  
He pulled a device from his belt and passed it over the head. It made a buzzing sound and all the flesh and goo turned to dust and fell away, then he handed it back, "Youuuuuu earnedddd..."   
  
With that the two gatherers sprinkled some powdery stuff on the rest of the corpse and it burst into a bright blue-white fireball. Then the three shimmered into invisibility and leapt their way out of the canyon. Leaving me wounded, standing there holding a polished white demon skull and a sword with a bleeding Ranger and a hysterical mad scientist, and a formation in a few hours.  
  
Sometimes, it is to laugh.

 

**Aftermath**

BA and stood there looking at the smoldering remains as Walsh sobbed quietly.  
  
"What now El-Tee?"  
  
"Medical attention I think," I pointed at his arm.  
  
"Sounds good. What about her?"  
  
"Leave her. No self-respecting coyote would touch that."  
  
Pops nodded and the pair of us started hobbling for the canyon mouth.  
  
"Th' things you fight Junior. Are they all this crazy?"  
  
"Oh yeah..."

  
We eventually got to the point where I had intersected the convoy. All three SUVs were burning and Hannibal and Face were in the process of securing the last of the Black Ops troops. The Colonel waved us over.  
  
"Report Lieutenant."  
  
"Situation resolved sir. Entity destroyed."  
  
"Are you sure?"  
  
I held up the skull, "Sir yes sir!"  
  
"Good work you two. Mount up," he pointed over at a humvee, "we're out of here in five. Aerial recon reports another convoy en route."  
  
BA and started limping over, "Pops," I whispered, "How in the hell did he and Face take out all those guys?"  
  
"Never piss him off Junior..."  
  
We had almost made it to the vehicle when I heard helicopters closing fast.  
  
"Incoming!" only problem was they were overhead and guys were rappelling out almost as soon as I shouted.

  
There were ten of them. All in black with night vision gear and MP5s. I sighed.  
  
"All uff you, vhere is it?" A guy about as massive as BA with a growly bass voice started with the yelling.  
  
"It's dead," the Colonel said and nodded at BA and me.  
  
"Colonel Smith? Vhat the hell are you doing here?"  
  
"Cleaning up a mess sir. Would you like a cigar?"  
  
"Ya I think I vould," Hannibal and Face walked over and carefully put their weapons on the ground. Then the Colonel pulled out a cigar and handed it to the big guy in black. He pulled off his hood and took it gratefully as Hannibal lit it for him. "Danke."  
  
"My pleasure sir."  
  
"So, vhat the hell happened here. How vas it killed"  
  
I spoke up, "I'm sorry sir, but I don't think you have the clearance to get that information."  
  
"Hannibal, vhat is she talking about?"  
  
"Dutch, that is the toughest 2nd Lieutenant you will ever see...Including me."  
  
"Her?"  
  
"Yes her. General Schaefer, let me introduce Lieutenant Summers."  
  
"Lieutenant, vhat happened here?"  
  
"Like I said sir, if you don't have Jarrett level clearance, I can't tell you. Now if you don't mind, Sergeant Baracus is hurt pretty bad," I pulled off my balaclava, "I'm not feeling so hot myself."  
  
"Buffy, what happened to your face?" Hannibal looked kind of shocked.  
  
I poked my cheek and felt the grating of bone ends moving, "Forearm smash maybe? BA did you see what hit me?"  
  
"Think it was th' kick at your shoulder that kind of missed."  
  
"Ohhh yeah! Right after I tagged in."  
  
The General wasn't looking at my face. His attention was on the skull I held in my left hand.  
  
"How did you get that?"  
  
"It was a present. I was told I earned it. You want one, you have to get your own," then the world turned all gray and I fell down.

  
Six weeks later I had completed the final FTX. The story the hospital (and the MI School) had gotten is that I had been run over by a poacher's jeep when I was patrolling the site perimeter. My super-healy stuff had done it's work so I only looked really banged up and not almost dead when they checked me in.  
  
The Colonel, Face, Murdock (and Billy) had sent me a fruit basket and BA had sent me flowers and his original Ranger Tab. Mom had shown up the day after I had been checked in and it was really great to spend time with her.  
  
Just before they released me from the hospital, Mom and I were packing up my stuff when there was a knock at my door.  
  
I stepped over, pulled it open and there was General Schaefer looming over me.  
  
"I still need your report Lieutenant."  
  
"I'm sorry sir..."  
  
"The Jarrett codeword is vampires. Here are your orders, see you in a month at Fort Bragg," he handed me a pack of documents and left. I stood there staring down the hallway after him.  
  
"What was it Buffy?"  
  
"I'm not sure mom but I think I've been recruited..."

 

**Author's Note:**

> Predator Property 20th Century Fox.


End file.
